“Hug Your Customers, love the results” is a book about the principles of passionate customer service. Written by USA retailer, Jack Mitchell, it is full of homespun philosophies and amusing anecdotes that give a glimpse of why his two store business is so successful. Here are two examples of what Jack Mitchell means by a ‘hug’:

“A hug can be a thoughtful remedy for an annoyance. When the postal service raised the price of a stamp to 37cents from 34 cents, my first thought was, ‘Oh great, now I’ve got to stand in line to get 3-cent stamps so I can use that mound of 34-cent stamps I bought…I hate waiting in lines, so I sent out a personal note to 500 of our good customers, thinking they might be in the same boat, and included some 3-cent stamps. I wrote, ‘In an effort to make your life less hectic, I have enclosed a handful of 3-cent stamps.’ It was a hug out of nowhere, and they loved it.”

(more…)

In February while in England, I wrote about the British media’s love affair with Tesco and it’s managing director Sir (or is that Saint) Terry Leahy. At the time I was about to embark on a three-week roadshow of seminars for farm shops and farmers markets where I expected to hear a different viewpoint.

I did, but to their credit this was coupled with a passion for educating the public to the benefits of farm fresh, local produce for their health, taste buds and the local economy.

To get a more comprehensive understanding of this, I purchased “Shopped – The Shocking Power of Supermarkets”, a newly released book by award winning UK food writer, Joanna Blythman.

(more…)

I’ve just been reading “Good Enough Never Is” an inspirational new book about rural business success.

Written by Peter Kenyon, it comprises 20 case studies of ordinary rural people who dared to be different and have become out-of-the-ordi-nary rural entrepreneurs. The author examines the attitudes, behaviours and skills that set them apart from most business operators in rural and outback Australia.

Not only is this book an inspiring and entertaining read, it is a tool for self-analysis of yourself, your business and your local community. Not just for rural dwellers either. There is much that city folk can learn from the amazingly resourceful people in our regional areas.

Let me give you a glimpse of the contents.

(more…)

Tom O’Toole the famous baker from Beechworth in Victoria is passionate about setting goals. It’s something that comes out clearly in his earlier wonderful video/DVD case study ‘Making Dough With Tom O’Toole’. I’ve used this with clients in many lines of work on both sides of the globe and the message gets through.- if Tom can do it then any of us can.

While he stresses the value and importance of goals in ‘Making Dough With Tom O’Toole’, as with many inspirationally successful people we are left to work out for ourselves how to go about it.

Tom’s new DVD, ‘Dare To Dream’ now goes to the next stage and sets out a step by step processes for setting and achieving goals.

(more…)